Voting to leave the EU is going to mean Britain goes global

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The only people who will regret Brexit are the oligarchs in BrusselsCredit:
Bloomberg Finance

I’ve spent the past 25 years arguing about the UK’s relationship with the EU. Now that a majority of the British people have made a clear decision, let’s make sure we don’t spend the next quarter-century having this debate. We need a new national consensus, and we want many of those who voted Remain to be part of it.

During the campaign, I was struck by how many good, decent people I met wanted the UK to stay in the EU. They did so on the basis of sincerely held views. We now need to reach out to the 48 per cent who voted Remain and make sure we bring as many of those in that sizable minority with us as we can.

Britain will leave the European Union. No European court or legislature will have jurisdiction in the UK. Ministers in Parliament answerable to the electorate will determine our trade policy, in partnership with other countries around the world. The unrestricted movement of people will end, because the British government will decide the nature of restrictions on immigration.

But none of that means we won’t carry on cooperating with our friends and neighbours in Europe when it’s in our mutual interest to do so – for example, in science and research. The academics I met in Cambridge, who were worried about the future of research funding, need an assurance that funding will continue, and international collaboration with other universities will be actively supported by the Government.

Clearly many politicians and pundits, especially in the broadcast media, failed to see the referendum result coming. Because of that, they failed to take the Leavers’ arguments seriously. Now they are playing catch-up.

For instance, on Radio 4 this morning, Nick Robinson seemed startled by the fact that you don’t need to be in the Single Market to trade freely with the Single Market. A point that Leavers have been making for years, and argued consistently during the campaign, which the commentariat is only just starting to understand.

Voting to leave the EU is going to mean Britain goes global

As those who didn’t vote Leave begin to see the detail of what’s being proposed, and the extent to which this is a gradual process driven by the need for consent and goodwill on all sides, I am hopeful that more and more Remainers will come to recognise this as a change for the better.

I passionately believe that the UK became and remains an exceptional country because it is interconnected, open, and liberal. Voting to leave the EU is going to mean Britain goes global. The only people who will regret this are the oligarchs in Brussels. Come with us, and let’s make this work.